Studio Heads Shared Their Experience With Four-Day Workweeks

Creative directors and CEOs of four different companies who implemented four-day working weeks including Kitfox Games, KO_OP, Armor Games, and ManaVoid Entertainment shared their experiences with four-day workweeks in a GDC panel this week. As reported by Protocol, the developers spoke of the advantages of this model saying that they are satisfied with the outcomes the studios showed.

Kitfox co-founder and creative director Tanya X. Short shared that the studio initially set a six-week trial period for a four-day workweek model to avoid burnout and maintain employees' mental health, although now, nearly nine months later, Kitfox shortened working week to 32 hours on a permanent basis.

She claimed: "It was almost impossible to go back to five days. We briefly discussed it, but nobody wanted to even try.” Short mentioned that the studio will stick to this model at least until the pandemic is over, although she suggested that Kitfox perhaps will never switch back again.

KO_OP studio director Saleem Dabbous added that his team was also satisfied with trying out the four-day workweek. "We conducted a bunch of interviews, anonymous feedback, one-on-ones," Dabbous explained. "This sounds obvious, but it was really positive across the board."

ManaVoid Entertainment CEO Chris Chancey shared that implementing this model rose the morale across his team. "Organically, people felt like they could be refreshed with a three-day weekend," he said. John Cooney, CEO of Armor Games, noted that he also sees a lot of advantages in a four-day workweek saying: "It feels like it’s my time I’m getting back."

However, all the devs noted that the switch to this model hasn't been smooth. They touched upon the issues concerning statutory holidays when it was hard to find a better solution: to take a three-day week or work on a holiday instead. Chancey also mentioned some cases when several employees wanted to work on Fridays which made the studio have to figure out the way how to create room for these people without putting pressure on others who didn't want to do the same.

Although, in general, the speakers all agreed that the four-day workweek is a rising trend in the game industry. They noted that this model will facilitate attracting new talent as well as retaining employees and creating more healthy work environments.

You can learn more about implementing the four-day workweeks across the four companies here. Also, don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.